Bob Sacks is an avid Publishing futurist, electrifying the media and marketing industry with the good and bad news about what he calls “El-CID” or Electronically Coordinated Information Distribution. This BLOG will follow the trends of Publishing as it continues to evolve.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Deeming 2006 disappointing for the magazine industry may be an exaggeration. Nevertheless, publishers have undoubtedly seen better years. Advertising revenue declined for a number of popular print titles, with publications such as Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Skiing, and Jane shedding significant numbers of ad pages over the course of the year, according to Advertising Age (“Magazines Finish Flat, but Hope for Better Q1” by Nat Ives, 12/4/06). A noticeable drop in automotive and pharmaceutical advertising was partly responsible for these declines, although with Internet marketing techniques clearly improving throughout 2006, print publications were competing for a smaller piece of the pie than in previous years. Still, according to the Magazine Publishers of America web site, there was a two percent increase in the number of magazine launches during 2006.

Uncertain potential

While the Hispanic publishing category has long been viewed by industry insiders as a potential gold mine, the overall rate of consumer spending on Hispanic magazines fell by four percent in 2006. The closures of once-promising titles Shape en Español and Christina La Revista were indicative of the difficulties that publishers face in attempting to reach this constantly changing demographic. There's no magic formula that will suddenly turn things around; however, the idea put forward in MEDIAWEEK that “the key to success in the Hispanic magazine market is reaching the 30-something female decision-maker” (“Hispanic Mags' Growth Slow, Despite Cultural Boom” by Lauren Charlip, 2/19/07) has gained traction, and 2007 will almost certainly bring new efforts to appeal to this subset of readers.

Teen magazines also experienced turbulence in 2006, with Elle Girl and Teen People shutting down, and overall circulation numbers showing little upward momentum. As the Internet draws more teen readers away from print, publishing companies are attempting to create brand associations among magazines, sophisticated web sites, and other media platforms. At this stage, it's difficult to say whether such tie-ins will attract new readers, but at least publishers are beginning to see the Internet as something other than a monolithic impediment to their goals. During the 2006 American Magazine Conference, reports Advertising Age, the tone concerning new media, digital and otherwise, seemed to be one of increased openness (“Mags No Longer Equate Digital with Doom” by Nat Ives, 10/30/06). With Google and Yahoo! actively seeking to create partnerships with print media organizations, this new cooperative, positive attitude may yield some interesting results in the near future.

Wealth in the pages

Luxury and men's magazines performed exceptionally well in 2006. Luxury magazines catering to the ultra-affluent, such as Robb Report and Town & Country, were seemingly immune to the malaise affecting other segments of the industry. Time, Inc.'s 2006 launch of Golf Magazine Living, which offers advice on owning a home in a high-end golf community, indicates the promise of niche and luxury publications. The substantial increase in the number of millionaires over the past decade appears to be the driving force behind this taste for extravagant products and services. According to MEDIAWEEK, men's magazines succeeded in large part by catering to the “demand by men for fashion and style guidance” (“Men's Mags Bulk Up on Service” by Lucia Moses, 2/12/07) and by streamlining content presentation.

Mixed economic indicators make the latter half of 2007 somewhat difficult to predict from a publishing perspective, as the subprime mortgage lending crisis along with unstable world markets could trigger a recession by early fall. Luxury and niche publications should continue to be successful this year, but a potential economic downturn offers no guarantees.

Although it suffered from editorial staff turnover and other setbacks in its first few months of existence, Culture & Travel has a formula that could succeed over the long run, especially in an era when luxury-related publications are performing exceptionally well. Its emphasis on art, architecture, food, and wine appeals to cultured travelers. Patrons interested in topics such as contemporary English art, the spectacular late-winter sunrises in Longyearbyen, Norway, or Kyoto-based Japanese cuisine will undoubtedly thumb through Culture & Travel regularly. Currently, the magazine's web site offers complimentary subscriptions.

At a time when funding for secondary school arts and music programs is being slashed nationwide, it is somewhat surprising to see this first-rate jazz education magazine appear. Perhaps its launch is an indicator that the worst of the cuts is behind us and that parents, teachers, and administrators are again recognizing that music education is essential for human development. Superbly instructive articles on solo growth in improvisation, classical guitar techniques, and music-related computer programs make this essential for any library serving music educators.

Maximum Fitness. bi-m. $14.97. Ed: Matt Nicholls. www.maxfitmag.com.

Maximum Fitness was one of the more solid start-ups in 2006, mainly because it became exactly what it promised: an actual fitness magazine. Where other men's health and fitness publications present celebrity-obsessed, sex-driven content, Maximum Fitness keeps things simple by providing readers with helpful, well-researched information on weight training, weight management, nutrition, and related topics. (LJ 5/1/06)

The Nest. q. $14.99. Ed: Carley Roney. www.thenest.com.

Catering to newly married young women, The Nest scores with its home décor tips, fashion recommendations, and delectable recipes. There's also plenty of advice on managing household budgets, preparing for children, and buying a house. Developed by the well-known wedding web site The Knot, the magazine treats its readers to a chic yet affordable upper-middle-class sensibility; it belongs in most public libraries.

A Public Space. q. $36. Ed: Brigid Hughes. www.apublicspace.org.

Former Paris Review executive editor Brigid Hughes founded A Public Space in 2006 with the idea that good literature had lost its place in contemporary culture and that a new publication was needed to help the restoration process. While literature's marginalization isn't news, A Public Space is worth noting for its attention to quality and its open-minded approach. An excellent buy for libraries with strong poetry and short fiction collections. (LJ 7/06)

Shattered. bi-m. $29.95. Ed: Julie Ros. www.shatteredmagazine.com.

Shattered is the “first global business magazine for and about women,” and based upon its debut issue, it's an absolutely necessary publication. Featuring articles on diverse subjects such as the hedge fund industry's institutionalization, the microfinance revolution, and the development of intellectual property strategies for China, Shattered certainly lives up to its word to provide “substantive, hard-hitting” content. It also offers a bit of lighter lifestyle-related material to supply some relief from the heavier reality of business life. For most libraries.

Published by Consumers Union as a companion to Consumer Reports, ad-free ShopSmart was created to appeal to younger women who want to be educated shoppers but who do not necessarily enjoy reading through the complicated graphs and ratings systems in Consumer Reports. Rather than emphasizing the hi-tech and big-ticket items covered in its sister publication, ShopSmart attends to items such as food, clothing, household cleaners, and kitchen utensils. Libraries subscribing to Consumer Reports are advised to add this one to their collections.

Success. bi-m. $9.95. Ed: Gay Bryant. www.successmagazine.com.

Reborn in 2006 as a snazzier, breezier magazine than its predecessor, Success is geared toward “inspiring business people to achieve in business and in life”; it markets itself as a motivational tool for corporate management and, to a lesser degree, independent entrepreneurs. Like most self-help publications, the power of positive thinking is at the center of what Success hopes to forward. Where it truly succeeds is in leadership profiles of individuals such as CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, hedge-fund manager Tom Brown, and restaurateur Steven Schussler. For business libraries and larger public libraries. (LJ 11/1/06)

Verdant. bi-m. $18. Ed. Sharon King Hoge. www.verdantmag.com.

Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, brought the global warming issue to the forefront of American popular culture, and now, with several large corporations beginning to espouse tenets of the Green movement, a move toward ecofriendly, sustainable economic models seems inevitable. Verdant, aimed at individuals and individual households, presents the looming environmental crisis as something that's personal—something that can be affected by small, domestic-derived changes in thinking and behavior. (LJ 1/07)

Wondertime. q. $10. Ed: Lisa Stiepock. www.wondertime.go.com.

Wondertime, a magazine devoted to the worldviews and activities of young children, enjoyed a successful initial year, owing in large part to its ability to capture the attention of parents with its easy-to-read presentation and pragmatic approach to child rearing. The task of raising young children isn't always cut-and-dried, but Wondertime's sensible advice columns and helpful features certainly make parents' lives easier. Recommended for public libraries. (LJ 7/06)

Young Adults Bigger Mag Readers Than Their ParentsStudy: On Average, See 18 Titles a Month, Vs. 16 For Older GroupBy Nat Ives

Published: May 22, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Is your 20-year-old niece just not reading that subscription to The Atlantic that you bought her for her birthday? Not to worry; she's probably reading more magazines than most 50-year-olds -- just different magazines than the older crowd likes.

That's the upshot of research results by consulting firm McPheters & Co., which said this week young adults read more magazines than older people. "Because many established titles have seen the median age of their readers increase, there has been a misperception that magazine readers are getting older," said Rebecca McPheters, president. "While younger adults tend to read different titles than those in older age groups, the fact that they read more magazines overall is very exciting."

Good news for printExciting, that is, for purveyors of ink on glossy paper, many of whom fear the internet will do for them what it did for Elle Girl and Teen People last year -- run them out of print.

Among a group of 8,400 respondents, those aged 19 to 24 reported reading an average of 18.3 titles in the previous six months, while the 25-to-34 set counted reading 18.9. By comparison, those aged 45-54 said they read 16.7 titles in the prior six months and people older than 65 said they read 14. The young, moreover, read more issues of the titles in question.

The findings were based on results from the beta test of Readership.com, a planned audience-measurement service for print publications, conducted last summer. A full rollout of Readership.com itself has been stalled by a lack of funding, McPheters & Co. said.

In recent years, several new magazines intended for Muslim Americans have come on the market. While they are not prominent on the shelves of newsstands and bookstores in the United States, the magazines are making an impact, according to creators, editors, and readers of the publications. From New York, Mona Ghuneim has the story.

Hanifah Abdul-Baqi, a 19-year-old Muslim girl from North Carolina, loves fashion. Like most teenage girls, she enjoys flipping through magazines and seeing the latest styles and trends. But Hanifah wears the hijab, or headscarf, and she says that while she can look through magazines like Teen People or Cosmo Girl, she cannot always relate.

Then she discovered Muslim Girl, a magazine featuring young Muslim American women who stand out in academics, the arts and sports. And, she says, the magazine gave her ideas for modest fashions she could wear.

Hanifah says the English-language magazine, launched in January of this year, also helped her peers and friends understand her better.

"They were surprised to see that there's a magazine with a girl in hijab on the cover," said Hanifah Abdul-Baqi. "They said, 'You guys have something that is your own now' and they felt comfortable with the issue even more."

Being comfortable with Islam is certainly one of the goals of Muslim Girl, says editor-in-chief Ausma Khan. She describes the monthly publication as a magazine for young Muslim women whose faith means a lot to them, but who are just like other teenage girls in America. Khan created the magazine as a way to serve what she says is a huge community that needs more positive representation in the mainstream media.

"We want to reach as many people as possible by telling the stories about American girls who are Muslim and getting other communities to see them as part of American life, as teens that they have something in common with and to clear away misunderstandings, and hope for a better dialogue," said Ausma Khan.

Khan says Muslim Girl, with a current circulation of 50,000, targets a potential 400,000 Muslim teenage girls in Canada and the United States.

Islamica began as an academic journal in the 1990s in London but then closed down. In 2003 it re-emerged in the United States as a glossy quarterly. The magazine features articles on current affairs, arts, science, business and even poetry and fiction.

The articles in Islamica are similar to those a reader would find in other magazines, says Ahmad, but from a Muslim perspective.

"We're interested in discussing the issues that come out of what it means to be a Muslim or to have the experience of being Muslim and how that relates to people who are living around you, in your communities and things like that," said Firas Ahmad.

Ahmad says 60 to 70 percent of the magazine's subscribers are in the United States and Canada. Islamica's worldwide circulation is 15,000 and its subscriber base in the United States is 6,000. Ahmad says, the magazine isn't out to win a popularity contest. Rather, he says, the goal is to be influential in certain circles.

"What we're trying to do is get the magazine out there to 'thought leaders' in America, both within and outside the Muslim community. If someone like, say for example, [journalist] Thomas Friedman is a subscriber and he reads an article in there that gives him a different perspective on reform in the Muslim world and then he cites something in his Op-Ed piece that then goes out to 3.5 million people to the New York Times, that's the kind of impact we're looking to achieve," said Ahmad.

Ahmad believes Islamica and other magazines like Muslim Girl, Islamic Horizons and Azizah all stem from the same desire: to define for themselves what it means to be Muslim.

Tayyibah Taylor is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Azizah. She says the quarterly publication premiered in 2000 as a vehicle for Muslim women in America to hold their own conversation about themselves. Taylor says she was tired of seeing the same image of Muslim women in the western media - what she describes as oppressed, depressed, usually Arab and dressed in only one way. So she decided to offer an alternative.

What ensued, Taylor says, was a women's magazine that deals with issues like autism, breast cancer, leadership, fashion, marriage, and a whole gamut of subjects reflecting the diversity of Muslim American women.

Taylor says Azizah started as a homegrown project, using personal savings and avoiding loans. Today the magazine is sustained by subscription sales and advertising, and she says, the Muslim market is growing.

"Advertisers in America are going to now realize that the Muslim consumer is one to be courted and they will start courting them with custom-made things for their demographic," said Tayyibah Taylor.

The rise in the number of Islamic publications in North America does reflect the growing Muslim market, says one reader of these magazines. But, he says, many of these publications are avoiding the hard issues.

Mohamed Zakariya converted to Islam in 1961. Since then, he says, he has read as many English-language Islamic publications as he could find. While he feels the more recent magazines have promise, he thinks they still talk about Islam from the outside and skirt around certain subjects.

"They need to be discussing the serious consequences, for instance, to put it in a way that people will all understand, the consequences of following radical ideologies and where it's going to take them," said Mohamed Zakariya.

But Zakariya says he's glad to see more of these magazines coming to the table, or in the case of many of the publications, to the Internet, public libraries and universities. And the publishers hope that one day their magazines will be available to the mass market in newsstands, bookstores and even airport shops.

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About Me

a veteran of the printing/publishing industry since 1970, Bob Sacks was always an innovator. Even back in the 70s he followed a more creative path than usual. He started his career where some people end -- with the founding of his own weekly newspaper in the metro New York area.
After several years in the alternative press publishing newspapers in New York and Tucson, Az., he went on to become one of the founding fathers of High Times Magazine.
Since then Bob has held positions that include Publisher, Editor, Freelance Writer, Director of Manufacturing and Distribution, Senior Sales Manager, Circulator, Chief of Operations, Pressman, Cameraman, Lecturer, and Developer of web site companies.
Bob’s resume lists directorships at such prestigious companies as McCall's, Time Inc, New York Times Magazine Group, International Paper, Ziff-Davis, CMP, and Bill Communications (VNU).